Gaozi
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Gaozi (; ca. 420-350 BCE), or Gao Buhai (), was a
Chinese philosopher Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the "Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developme ...
during the
Warring States period The Warring States period () was an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the Qin wars of conquest ...
. Gaozi's teachings are no longer extant, but he was a contemporary of Mencius (ca. 372-289 BCE), and most of our knowledge about him comes from the ''Mencius'' book (6) titled "Gaozi". Warring States philosophers disputed whether human nature is originally good (Mencius) or evil ( Xunzi).see Graham (1967) and Chan (1996) The "Gaozi" chapter begins with a famous metaphor about a type of willow tree ( (')). (Qi was also an ancient place name, best known through the four-character idiom '' , "person from Qi who worried heaven might fall""groundless fears; superfluous worry".)
The philosopher aosaid, 'Man's nature is like the 'qi''willow, and righteousness is like a cup or a bowl. The fashioning benevolence and righteousness out of man's nature is like the making cups and bowls from the 'qi''willow.'
Mencius replied, 'Can you, leaving untouched the nature of the willow, make with it cups and bowls? You must do violence and injury to the willow, before you can make cups and bowls with it. If you must do violence and injury to the willow in order to make cups and bowls with it, on your principles you must in the same way do violence and injury to humanity in order to fashion from it benevolence and righteousness! Your words, alas! would certainly lead all men on to reckon benevolence and righteousness to be calamities.'
The philosopher aosaid, 'Man's nature is like water whirling round in a corner. Open a passage for it to the east, and it will flow to the east; open a passage for it to the west, and it will flow to the west. Man's nature is indifferent to good and evil, just as the water is indifferent to the east and west.'
Mencius replied, 'Water indeed will flow indifferently to the east or west, but will it flow indifferently up or down? The tendency of man's nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downwards. There are none but have this tendency to good, just as all water flows downwards. Now by striking water and causing it to leap up, you may make it go over your forehead, and, by damming and leading it you may force it up a hill - but are such movements according to the nature of water? It is the force applied which causes them. When men are made to do what is not good, their nature is dealt with in this way.' (6A, tr.
James Legge James Legge (; 20 December 181529 November 1897) was a Scottish linguist, missionary, sinologist, and translator who was best known as an early translator of Classical Chinese texts into English. Legge served as a representative of the London ...
, 1895:394-39


References

*Graham, A.C. 1967. "The Background of the Mencian Theory of Human Nature." ''Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies'' 6, 1967. *Chan, C.W.
Good and Evil in Chinese Philosophy
, ''The Philosopher'' 84, 1996.


External links


告子上
''Mencius'' Book 6A "Gaozi", with original Chinese and Legge translation, Chinese Text Project {{Chinese philosophy 5th-century BC births 4th-century BC Chinese philosophers Zhou dynasty philosophers Year of death unknown